Improving Resilience by Building a Weather-Ready Nation

NOAA's mission of reducing loss of
life, property, and the disruption from high impact weather and water-related
events has existed since its inception. However, in recent years the
significant societal impacts resulting even from well forecast extreme events
have shifted the attention toward better decision support services for
communities, businesses, and the public -- decisions ranging from years in
advance such as coastal community planning to mitigate impacts from rising sea
level, to farmers minimizing impacts from drought heading into growing season,
to immediate lifesaving decisions such as a family seeking adequate shelter
after their NOAA Weather Radio alerts them to a tornado warning.

To this end, NOAA is committed to
building a "Weather-Ready
Nation" where society is prepared for and responds
appropriately to these events. The Weather-Ready Nation strategic priority is
about building community resilience in the face of increasing vulnerability to
extreme weather, water, climate, and environmental threats. NOAA also
recognizes it is essential to work collaboratively with external stakeholders
across all levels of government, industry, nonprofits, and academia. In
February, 2014, NOAA launched the Weather-Ready
Nation Ambassador initiative to recognize organizations committed to
working with NOAA and contributing to a Weather-Ready Nation.

Know your risk: Hurricanes,
droughts, tornadoes, snowstorms, flooding – severe weather impacts every part
of the country. The first step to becoming weather-ready is to understand the
type of hazardous weather that can affect where you live and work, and how the
weather could impact you and your family.

Take action: Be
Force of Nature by
making sure that you and your family are prepared for severe weather. This
includes creating a disaster supplies kit and making sure that you can receive
emergency messages.

Be an example: Be a
positive influence on your community by sharing your weather preparedness
story. Be a Force of Nature by letting your friends and family know what you
did to become weather-ready.